Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)

We will not run the general election campaign again. Whichever way one takes it, the circumstances have changed somewhat since the general election. The big change was that many European countries believed, as we did that night, that there should be burden sharing with bondholders. That was driven by the German Government and when it got agreement, it was tried out in Greece. There are 20% discounts on a voluntary basis across the Greek banking system. Within a week the contagion had run into Italy and continued on to Spain, which was the source of the present crisis.

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